Sodar in air pollution meteorology

Information concerning atmospheric stability and turbulence is basic in studies related to air pollution meteorology. In this context a monostatic sodar has been operating at the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, for many years to probe the thermal structure of the lower atmosphere in real time and space.
Various observed thermal structures viz. nocturnal inversion, thermal plumes, formation and break-up of inversion, orographical mixing, multilayered structures and waves etc., are the result of the different atmospheric stabilities and turbulence conditions. These structures have been studied in the light of surface measurements of wind speed and direction for organized indexing of the structural details to infer meteorological conditions concerning Pasquill stability classifications.
The height of the ground-based thermal structure has been correlated with the Richardson number, Ri, for quantitative estimation of the turbulence parameter. Estimated values of Ri have been further used to determine the cross wind dispersion coefficient, [sigma]y. The results obtained are realistic and can be used as input parameters for air pollution modelling.